OLD Tandy Auto Trash Bag kit

[Zilla]

So I've been surfing eBay for fun "vintage" items to play with. I pick up this OLD Tandy Auto Trash Bag kit for $3.99 WHAT a steal right? Ok so with all the Oak Leaf pics and How-To's I tool a nice little oak leaf corner on it. I'm pretty impressed with it then I basket weave the rest of it. NOT ONE screw up on the basket weave! I'm even more impressed with myself. Now I HATE doing that double loop lace stitch but I spend the better part of my day off going around this little trash bag. Oh daymn I started in the wrong place. Oh well I'll just weave in the end and finish the pocket. No big deal for me seeing I have a big back ground in fiber crafting. 2nd stitch in my hole breaks. No clue how to fix it so I take a bit of black duct tape and fold over the edge and put in a new hole for the lace. I get past the couple hole of the duct tape fix and the next hole breaks. GRRR *insert rude and crude language*

I mean I'm pretty damn impressed with the whole tooling, carving, stamping I've done on this. It's been dyed a nice warm medium oak color, antiqued and then dark brown dye around the oak leaves. My beveling is smooth and I even took a black Sharpie around the bevel. Sealed it all and then this "Vintage" item starts falling apart on me. I guess I was just to excited with the kit to remember vintage means old and I should of re-conditioned the leather before ever starting to work on it.

If nothing else I have a nice hard pattern for making a few for Christmas gifts this year.

Kevin